After the outbreak of the Civil War, four volunteer companies originally consisting of fifty to one hundred men were recruited in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on April 19, 1861. On April 21, the officers were chosen with Captain Robert M. Henderson, in charge of Company A of the 36th Regiment, 7th Pennsylvania Reserve Corps. Henderson was assisted […]

The Battle of the Wilderness (also known as Combats at Parker’s Store, Craig’s Meeting House, Todd’s Tavern, Brock Road, and the Furnaces) took place from May 5-7, 1864 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia as a part of Union General Ulysses S. Grant ’s overland campaign. Grant’s troops attacked General Robert E. Lee and the Army of […]

Sixteen-year-old John Taylor Cuddy left his home in Carlisle, Pennsylvania to enlist in Company A of the 36th Pennsylvania Infantry on June 5, 1861. Over the next two years, Cuddy wrote 77 letters home to his family describing his experiences as a soldier in the Union army. Cuddy’s correspondence is available online as part of […]

In its inaugural issue published on March 15, 1862 the New South, a weekly periodical with Northern sympathies, described the Union capture of Port Royal, South Carolina on November 7, 1861 as a “brisk little engagement with the enemy at Port Royal Ferry, in which the National forces, both Army and Navy manifested pluck and […]

The Battle of Jenkins’ Ferry took place in Grant county, Arkansas on April 30, 1864 as Confederate forces attempted to Union General Frederick Steele’s forces retreated across the Saline River. While Confederates attacked several times, they could not stop Steele’s men from crossing the river with their supplies. Andrew F. Sperry, who served with the […]

The Battle of Ball’s Bluff, also known as the Battle of Harrison’s Island or Battle of Leesburg was fought on October 21, 1861 in Loudoun County, Virginia. In response to movement by Confederate Colonel Nathan G. Evans, Union Major General George B. McClellan ordered Brigadier General Charles P. Stone to conduct a “slight demonstration,” a […]

The Battle of Stones River (also known as the Battle of Murfreesboro) took place from December 31, 1862- January 3, 1863 in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Confederate General Braxton Bragg and the Army of Tennessee forced Union Major General William S. Rosecrans to the Nashville Pike, but the Union Army of the Cumberland was able to […]

On August 10, 1861 about ten miles south of Springfield, Missouri Confederate forces under the joint command of General Benjamin McCulloch and Major General Sterling Price of the Missouri State Guard, defeated General Nathaniel Lyon’s Union troops at the battle of Wilson’s Creek. The National Park Service provides information geared towards teachers on their website, […]

General William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea, also known as the Savannah Campaign, began on November 15 when Sherman’s forces left Atlanta, Georgia. The Confederate defeat at Savannah on December 21, 1864 marked the end of the campaign. Teachers can find an overview of this campaign in Professor Anne Bailey’s entry on the New […]

The Battle of Cold Harbor (also known as Second Cold Harbor) took place in Hanover County, Virginia from May 31-June 12, 1864. As a part of the overland campaign to Richmond of 1864 General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia defeated Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac. On June […]